Gymnostoma australianum
| Gymnostoma australianum | |
|---|---|
| Foliage, fruits and flowers | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Casuarinaceae |
| Genus: | Gymnostoma |
| Species: | G. australianum
|
| Binomial name | |
| Gymnostoma australianum | |
Gymnostoma australianum, sometimes known as oak,[4] is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to a restricted area of the Daintree tropical rainforests of north-eastern Queensland, Australia. It is a member of the 'she-oak' family Casuarinaceae, members of which are characterised by fine, drooping, evergreen foliage.[5] Superficially they look like some conifers such as Cupressus in the northern hemisphere and Callitris in the southern hemisphere.
Description
It grows into a small tree between 4 and 7 m (13 and 23 ft) tall with buttress roots and fissured bark. New shoots are covered in fine white or reddish brown hairs. The twigs are green and four-angled, and the leaves are reduced to tiny 'teeth' less than 1 mm (0.04 in) long.[4][5] The roots have nitrogen-fixing nodules.[6]
These trees may be either dioecious (with male and female flowers on separate plants), or monoecious (with both flowers on the same plant). Male flowers are borne on spikes about 2 mm (0.079 in) long; female flowers are without a perianth. The fruit is a small cylindrical cone about 10 mm (0.39 in) wide and long. They contain a number of samaras about 8 mm (0.31 in) long.[4][5]
Taxonomy
Gymnostoma is a small genus of 14 species (as of December 2025), occurring in Malesia, the western Pacific, and Queensland. It was erected in 1980 by botanist Lawrence Alexander Sidney Johnson,[7] who also described this species in 1989.[6]
Distribution and habitat
This species is found in the area between the Daintree River and Cape Tribulation, in the vicinity of Thornton Peak. It has been described as a 'habitat specialist', being restricted to exposed sites with shallow, granite-derived, acidic soils such as stream banks, river islands and granite outcrops, and it does not colonise newly-disturbed areas of the surrounding rainforest. The altitudinal range is from sea level to about 1,350 m (4,430 ft), with the granite outcrops mostly occurring in the higher part of the range.[4][8][9]
Conservation
Gymnostoma australianum has been given the conservation status of vulnerable under the Queensland government's Nature Conservation Act.[1] As of December 2025, it has not been assessed by the IUCN.
References
- ^ a b "Gymnostoma australianum". Wildnet. Queensland Government. 2025. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
- ^ "Gymnostoma australianumL.A.S.Johnson". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI). Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
- ^ "Gymnostoma australianum L.A.S.Johnson". Plants of the World Online. Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. 2025. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
- ^ a b c d F.A.Zich; B.P.M.Hyland; T.Whiffen; R.A.Kerrigan (2020). "Gymnostoma australianum". Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants Edition 8 (RFK8). Centre for Australian National Biodiversity Research (CANBR), Australian Government. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
- ^ a b c Wilson, K.L.; Johnson, L.A.S. (2022). "Gymnostoma australianum". Flora of Australia. Australian Biological Resources Study, Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Canberra. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
- ^ a b Johnson, L.A.S.; Wilson, K.L. (1989). "Casuarinaceae". In George, A.S. (ed.). Flora of Australia: Volume 3: Hamamelidales to Casuarinales. Collingwood, Victoria: CSIRO Publishing and Australian Biological Resources Study. ISBN 978-0-644-08499-4.
- ^ Johnson, L.A.S. (1980). "Notes on Casuarinaceae". Telopea. 2 (1): 83–84. doi:10.7751/telopea19804114. Retrieved 14 December 2025.
- ^ Cooper, Wendy; Cooper, William T. (June 2004). Fruits of the Australian Tropical Rainforest. Clifton Hill, Victoria, Australia: Nokomis Editions. p. 290. ISBN 978-0-9581742-1-3. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
- ^ Prider, Jane N.; Christophel, David C. (2000). "Distributional ecology of Gymnostoma australianum (Casuarinaceae), a putative palaeoendemic of Australian wet tropic forests". Australian Journal of Botany. 48 (4): 427–434. doi:10.1071/BT99006.
External links
- Map of herbarium records of this species at the Australasian Virtual Herbarium
- Observations of this species on iNaturalist
- Images of this species on Flickriver.com